GT World Challenge America is back this weekend after a two-month summer break. The fifth meeting of the season at Road America will feature a 19-car entry list comprised of six cars in the Pro class, 12 in Pro-Am – and a solitary Am class entrant.
An expanded Pro class will now feature the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Jan Heylen and Madison Snow. Snow, the current IMSA GTD championship co-leader and 2018 GTD champion was appointed three weeks ago to fill in for Charlie Luck for the remainder of the 2023 season as Luck recovers from a kidney injury.
The 27-year-old’s most recent appearance in the series was with Zelus Motorsports, last summer at Watkins Glen. He and Bryan Sellers won the last IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship race at Road America, and now Snow has the opportunity to double up around America’s National Park of Speed this month, in two different cars and two different series!
Heylen and Snow will add another variable in a tense battle for the Pro class championship. Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer lead the standings with five races to go – including this weekend’s doubleheader – but the top four teams in the standings are all covered by just 37 points.
Last time out at VIRginia International Raceway, the #9 TR3 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 stepped up to the Pro ranks, and the duo of Kenton Koch and Daniel Morad swept the weekend. The return of Ziad Ghandour to the #9 car alongside Morad will move them back to Pro-Am.
What’s more, TR3 Racing has added a second car to its fleet: GT4 America duo Jon Branam and Paul Kiebler will make the step up to GT3 competition aboard the #77 Mercedes-AMG GT3, as the only Am entry in the field.
So far this season, the duo of Branam and Kiebler finished third in the Am category in Race 2 at Circuit of the Americas, while Branam also won GT America Race 2 at Sonoma Raceway.
GMG Racing returns to Pro-Am competition this weekend – this time, GMG is represented by Kyle Washington and Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #32 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). Washington will be keen to atone for a very early exit in this year’s 24 Hours of Spa.
Esses Racing has also returned after a planned absence at VIR for the #19 Mercedes of Will Hardeman and Adam Carroll. Neil Verhagen will also make his second start with ST Racing in the #38 BMW M4 GT3.
The fight for the Pro-Am championship is a fierce, two-horse race between the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 991.2 of Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer, and the #04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes of George Kurtz and Colin Braun. Kurtz and Braun swept VIR last time out, and Kurtz wants to make amends for a lacklustre IMSA result in LMP2 last week at this same track.
In addition, Sellers has the same chance as Snow to repeat his recent Road America success, alongside Scott Smithson this weekend in the #08 DXDT Racing Mercedes.
Feature image © SRO Motorsports America
